The globally popular streaming service Netflix is known for its fluid and user-friendly interface. The perennial aim of all OTT platforms is to make customized recommendations to their users in order to maximize content consumption and subscriber count. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Netflix makes constant efforts to stay ahead of the competition and for doing that, the streaming platform is always looking for ways to fine-tune its recommendation algorithm. In that respect, Netflix is planning to do away with the ‘Percentage Matching’ feature/info which currently appears on its OTT app.
You might have noticed that just below many movie and series titles on Netflix, there is a ‘Percentage Matching’ info which tells the viewer the extent to which that particular title may be liked by that viewer. This percentage is apparently calculated on the basis of the user’s personal likes and dislikes and the kind of content he/she consumes on Netflix. For example, if a movie is rated as a 95% percentage match, then, as per Netflix, there is a 95% chance that the viewer will like that movie, or there is a 95% chance that the movie is as per his/her taste.
Although the exact reason behind the removal of the ‘Percentage Matching’ feature is not clear, it’s a possibility that the top brass at Netflix might have even thought that the feature might dissuade its viewers to watch movies and shows which fall below a threshold percentage limit, say, 70%. So, the ‘Percentage Matching’ removal is an interesting move by Netflix.
Netflix will now reportedly focus more on the ‘Tags’ which are mentioned in the movies and series titles streaming on its platform. For example, in ‘The Matrix: Resurrections’ movie on Netflix, it has been tagged by Netflix staff as “Mind-Bending, Dystopian, Cyberpunk, Epic World”. These tags help a great deal in giving apt recommendations to OTT viewers. In fact, there is a dedicated team of thirty people whose main job is to tag films and series titles streaming on Netflix.